Source: Credo Action
What good is free speech if powerful corporations have the ability to shut off or slow down viewpoints they find objectionable?
Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online.
Big phone and cable companies like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner have already begun blocking, censoring or disrupting content they don’t agree with. They’ve worked very hard to oppose net neutrality and pave the way for “network management” practices that allow blocking of certain content in favor of Web sites and services the companies prefer.
The bipartisan Internet Freedom Preservation Act (HR 5353), co-sponsored by Representatives Ed Markey (D-MA) and Chip Pickering (R-MS), was introduced into Congress on February 13th and represents a vitally important step in ensuring the Internet remains a level playing field for consumers and innovators.
The Markey-Pickering bill requires the FCC to actively protect the free-flowing Internet from gatekeepers, enforcing protections that “guard against unreasonable discriminatory favoritism for, or degradation of, content by network operators based upon its source, ownership, or destination on the Internet.”
Thank You for working to build a better world.
Will Easton, Activism Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
Filed under: Activism, Civil Liberties and Social Justice, Democracy, Free Speech, Media | Tagged: net neutrality
